


The Escapades of the Blind Bandit and Meathead: Top Priority

by ArtemisRae



Series: Escapades of the Blind Bandit and Meathead [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Comedy, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-18
Updated: 2007-01-18
Packaged: 2017-10-03 19:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisRae/pseuds/ArtemisRae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Toph's birthday, leading her to reflect on the important things in life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Escapades of the Blind Bandit and Meathead: Top Priority

* * *

There was much to be said for Toph Bei Fong. She was regarded world wide as a war hero. She had buckets of money. She was a powerful negotiator to have on one's side, as she usually had no problem getting exactly what she wanted. She could perform earthbending moves that no other bender in the world could duplicate.

Less known about Toph Bei Fong was her intense adoration for the dessert known as cake.

It was a life-long affair that began when she was just a toddler. Her mother, concerned in the best interests of her child, had been keeping Toph on a strict sweets-free diet until she was called away to her mother's house one early summer, not long after Toph's first birthday.

One of her father's business contacts had sent over a cake as an acknowledgment of a completed deal. And Lao Bei Fong had without hesitation had the cake served for dessert in place of his young daughter's usual spiced apples.

"Cake, Toph," the servants had firmly told the girl. She was at the stage where she was starting to form sounds into words, and the entire household was making an effort to identify everything Toph could handle in her chubby little hands.

All in all, Toph had clapped delightedly, the servants had smiled at her happiness, and Lao Bei Fong had smiled fondly at his daughter, confident in the knowledge that he could give her things that would make her happy without getting her in trouble with his wife.

Then his wife had returned the next night. Dinner had been served as normal, but when dessert rolled had around and attempts were made to serve Toph her usual helping of spiced apples, the girl had simply refused to open her mouth.

"Open your mouth, Toph," her mother had scolded gently.

Toph had twisted as far as she could in her seat before opening her mouth and saying loudly and clearly, "Cake."

It was the only time Lao Bei Fong had ever cowered in front of his wife.

The other great love of Toph Bei Fong's life (other than earthbending, which didn't count because earthbending _was_ her life and it never occurred to Toph to count it as anything other than an extension of herself) was the warrior of the Watertribe, Sokka.

Their relationship had started when Toph was merely an adolescent and was away from home from the first time. It was natural, of the two boys she was traveling with, that she would develop a crush on Sokka – he was almost a man, and he could take a rock to the head much better than that whiny pansy-assed Avatar.

It wasn't until several years after the war, when she was finally almost an adult herself that she had realized that he returned her affections. There was neither weepy confession (like Katara and Aang) nor determined, melodramatic speech (like Zuko and Mai); there was simply that one day she was Toph and he was Sokka, and then the next day they were Toph and Sokka. Easy for both of them and without the useless angst that she had witnessed others go through.

Cake and Sokka held special places in her life: both something she loved dearly, both something her mother would rather she not have.

This explained the surly mood Toph was currently in; really, she should have been in a much better mood. She was back in Gaoling, surrounded by friends and family. She had been the guest of honor at a large, elaborate party in honor of her birthday. There were presents still to be opened. Most people would have celebrated these things.

Toph, mostly, was irritated. This was her parent's fault.

When they'd offered to host her birthday celebration this year, she had, at first, balked at their offer. Toph saw her parents regularly; after the war they'd reconciled, but there were still deep wounds, both in how they had treated her and how they continued to treat her. She wasn't a child and hadn't been for a long time – but she was still their child, and their only child at that. Sometimes they still made actual attempts to guide her, and she, despite knowing they only had her best interests at heart, could not help resisting fiercely.

Not to mention there'd been constant whispers about grandchildren from the staff during her last visit.

Toph finally relented and allowed her parents to plan the party after making two demands: that she be allowed to invite all her friends and not just her father's business contacts and their unmarried sons, and that they provide a large, multi-flavored and multi-tiered cake.

They had grudgingly agreed, and so Toph and Sokka had gone to Gaoling and stayed at her parent's estate – Aang and Katara had been delayed and couldn't arrive until the night of the party itself – while they had bustled around and planned the type of large, gaudy, extravagant party that was so popular among those in court.

What Toph hadn't counted on – and later cursed herself a thousand times over for not anticipating – was being swept back into court life and kept so busy that she didn't have any time to spend with Sokka. Naturally, her parents had placed him in the guest room as far away as possible from hers without actually placing him in the servant's house, and the one night she had attempted to sneak out of her room she found out that the matronly head maid was, in fact, a very light sleeper.

Toph was very, _very_ frustrated by the night of the party – and had consoled herself with the knowledge that even if she hadn't had any alone time with Sokka for three whole days (and three _long_ nights), she, at the very least, would be getting some cake.

And then something completely inconceivable had happened: Toph had missed the cake. Her parents had outmaneuvered her; they gave into her demands, and then kept her so busy, running around and shaking hands and introducing her to people and generally throwing the exact party she was afraid they would – later she would rage about how she had seen it all coming and had still been sucked helplessly into it – that every time she got a hold of a cool porcelain plate she had been interrupted before she could take a bite. Then, by the time she had gotten away from her parents and their friends and their cigar smoke (oh, how she vowed to destroy Fire Lord Zuko for making those fashionable in court,) and got to the desert table herself, the cake had been removed from the table, probably banished back to the kitchens to either be finished off by the servants or thrown out with the garbage.

So by the time Toph had finally gotten out of the party – after discovering, much to her dismay, that not only was the cake gone, Sokka had slipped out of the party some time earlier already, so she hadn't gotten to spend any time with him once _again_ – she was, in fact, in a very surly mood indeed.

The staff skirted her as she stomped through the hallways, grumbling angrily to herself. Really, she had suspected this would happen. Really, she shouldn't have allowed her parents to parade her around like that. Really, she should have made more demands that would have either forced them to cancel the party or ensured that she would have actually enjoyed her birthday.

She reached her bedroom door and froze, hand halfway to the door ring. There was carpeting on the floor, but underneath was stone, and she could see clearly what was waiting on the other side for her.

Toph yanked back the door, nearly stubbing her toe in her haste, slipped through the door, and pulled it shut behind her. Walking past the bed, where Sokka lay in a robe, she threw herself down on the couch and shoved her hand into the large cake – some sections cut from it, but mostly intact – that sat on the short table in front of her.

"Hey!" Sokka squawked, sitting up sharply from the bed. "Don't I get a greeting?"

Toph stuck a huge hunk of cake in her mouth. "Good evening," she said regally, ignoring the crumbs that spilled down her front onto the green silk dress her mother had purchased especially for the evening - the maid would have a spectacular fit in the morning when she came to collect the laundry. "Thank you for saving my cake."

"Your welcome. I noticed you were kept pretty much on your father's arm all night."

Suddenly, as if she had just realized he was in the room, Toph _noticed_ him. Something was off – his voice had a low grumbling tone to her, and the way he was sitting on her bad, one foot grazing the floor in idle circles, shoulders slumped though a low tension thrummed through his body.

"Are you _pouting_?" she asked incredulously, wondering what he could possibly be upset about.

"Well did you even notice me when you came into the room? You went straight for the stupid dessert!" He was whining at her. Her jaw started to droop before she remembered that there was still cake in her mouth.

"It's my _birthday cake_!" she exclaimed, holding up the fist that was still clutching a sizeable hunk of the delicacy. "I haven't had a piece all evening!"

"And you haven't had a piece of _me_ in three days!" There was a desperate quality to his voice.

A strange laugh at the absurdity of their argument bubbled up through Toph's chest but was quickly shoved back down. "I do hope that wasn't supposed to be a come-on," she said, only half serious.

Sokka stood up from the bed. "So if Azula burst through that door and told you that you could either save me or eat an entire cake and that you had to make up your mind _right now_, which would you choose?" he demanded.

Toph hesitated.

"Are you kidding me?!" Sokka exploded, hands flying up in the air.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Toph exclaimed, sitting up from the couch and waving her hands patronizingly.

Sokka paused, hands on his hips, staring at her expectantly.

Toph licked one of her fingers clean. "What kind of icing does this cake have?"

Sokka groaned, defeated and flopped back onto the bed.

* * *


End file.
